What if Worms had Machine Guns?
by Eden Alice Poe
Summary: "How Long is Forever?" AU setting. -Yes, this has been done a million times before, deal with it.- The first chap is... :places bag over head: Yeah, skip past it if you want. The second chap & on will be much better, but it all will eventually tie-in together... After I figure out how to make the first chap... readable.
1. Chapter 1

Note: This is, well, I guess a random crack fic I've come up with. In my defense, I watch the first 4 Star Wars movies all day long (don't ask how this is possibly connected, cause I barely know how my mind works anymore). I couldn't sleep till I got all this typed out. (it's 3am I must be lonely! **a little look into the next chap of _Behind the Scenes_ goes to whoever can guess what that's supposed to be an allusion to**!) It's precisely 2000 words, so nya! To save time and confusion, this is "How Long is Forever?" AU, so Star's vamoose! Gone! I WILL eventually return to this, and do my own little "this is how the Titans ended up after Star left" type fic that's already been done a million times over & I'm sure my idea is _so_ original *rolls eyes* but c'est la vie. We shall endure, I'm sure. Now onto the fic!

...

"Then birds wouldn't fuck with them," he answered simply.

This earned a short, dry, bark of a laugh from the other resident bird of the Tower. "That's rich, coming from you, Dick."

"Raven!" Cyborg yelled, surprised by the empath's outburst, but oblivious to the double meaning of _that_ particular word.

Robin, however, blushed slightly at her remark. "No, it's fine Cy. Beast Boy, are you through asking stupid questions?"

Before the changeling could respond, indignant or not, the bird interrupted again. "If you're asking that his intelligence is going to mature past the 3rd grade level, you may as well give up now, oh genius leader."

"Raven! You're seriously acting up, more than usual. What's gotten into you?" Cyborg demanded.

"Yeah, Raven, you're not _this_ bad. Even on your worst days before..." Beast Boy's voice trailed off.

"Whatever, I need to meditate," she sulked, stalking out of Ops.

"I'll go see what's up with her," Robin chased after without waiting for a reply, though all spoke up or made moves to stop him, he evaded them.

"Raven!" he called as he ran after her.

"Oh Azar, why can't I be left alone! Stop being such a dick, Grayson, and give me some space already!" She was so close too, right outside her door. But no, she'd pause this moment for her leader, it would only take a moment,... right?

"Only if you'd stop with the facade of being such a depressed goth, Roth," he grinned stupidly at the little name game they had initiated. It was something that happened once every so often, a snarky banter would start up between the two. Before it was well known to either, it would escalate very quickly into a battle of wits, usually with neither too sure who had truly come out on top.

"Watch yourself, or a Robin may find his wings clipped."

"Quoth'd the Raven."

"Nevermore..." a pause, for dramatic effect, obviously, "Shall you have the chance to say that line, if I had things my way."

"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts-"

Raven interrupted her leader, "We'd all have a merry Christmas. But what if, for a moment. What if, Robin? What if? What if?-"

"What if worms had machine guns?" he repeated the question from earlier. BB had managed to go completely off topic (what, indeed, had been so important before, at any rate?) and was playing the 'what if' game with anyone who would continue answering to him. Robin had had enough and put his foot down with that question, which brings us to where we find our birds now.

"Being a raven, myself, I think they should know not to fuck with me. Everyone in Jump knows it, everyone out of Jump should be aware of it. So why not these worms that find themselves _so_ heavily armed suddenly?"

"Instead of the other way around?"

"Naturally."

"What about robins?"

"What about them?" She paused from entering her room, finally turing around to face her leader. This was taking longer than a moment.

"I don't think that they'd fuck with us."

"Well, seeing as how most normal people don't go running around in green spandex, fighting psychotic villains, robot commandoes, and giant, oozing monsters-"

"With all that business aside."

She sighed now, in a very defeated I-just-want-to-get-away-and-not-see-your-face type sigh. "No, Robin, I guess even if worms had a whole armada, air force, and continental army on their side, they probably wouldn't fuck with us."

"Would we fuck with them?"

"Pardon me?"

"Incubus. But before we get too ADD and go off topic here, would we, Robins or Ravens, representing all bird-kind, fuck with those worms? After all, that's how the saying goes..."

"No Robin, worms are just not important enough for me to spend my time on. I definitely would not want to _start_ fucking with them if they had mysteriously acquired heavy artillery."

"But, the early bird catches the worm-"

"And if you recall correctly, the only time I became an early bird, I brought along Armageddon."

"But you still stopped it."

"The ends don't always justify the means, Boy Blunder."

"Yet here we are. Everything is still pretty normal. We're all still how we were before, nothing's really changed with us. We're all the same teens we met that night Star crash-landed here." Robin was beginning to tread dangerous water. Raven did her best to stay afloat and jumped out the deep end before she could start drowning.

"You obviously, aren't the same Robin who's been tortured by what's become the Joker to his Batman, lost a friend to Azar knows what sort of time paradox we're trapped in, betrayed by another friend- thanks to that same Joker- had to risk going to Hell and back- with help from that Joker, surprisingly- then had to stop world domination- which, again surprisingly, had nothing to do with that Joker. Who are you, what have you done with our leader, and when will you be planning on returning him? I think I can handle a little break, but not too long, apparently we still need the guy."

"Ha, cute. Better watch yourself, Raven, I think I see that little kid I rescued from Hell creeping back sometimes. Or that cute little Bunny Raven we had to rescue from the Amazing Mumbo's hat of Wonder."

"Sometimes I wish you had stayed a monkey, Robin. You'd be mush easier to deal with... And DAMMIT! When are you just going to drop it! I'm not some cliche damsel in distress already!"

"Yeah, unleashing a Dragon on the Tower doesn't make one think of damsels in distress at all, especailly when I consider which room he had come out of."

"I said to drop it." Her voice got dangerously low once again. Robin recalled the time before, when Raven's voice got that low once. Before, they hadn't wanted to know what it could mean, now they all knew exactly what type of torture it could bring.

"Okay, fine. But while we're still talking..." Raven turned once more, as if to say she was simply done. "What if we really had gotten together?"

"Are we really going to go through this?"

"I think BB brought up a pretty valid point."

"Fine, if worms had machine guns, if Star hadn't disappeared, if they hadn't canceled _the show_, if we went about our lives and you and Star hadn't worked out and me and B hadn't worked out and we mysteriously had hooked up. Then maybe Robin, birds would still fuck with those worms and we wouldn't last too long as a couple either. Face it. Two birds against a world full of machine gun-toting worms? Too many people would be too adamantly against us. It won't fly, Robin."

"Screw what they say. Birds of a Feather, Flock Together."

"I think a robin and a raven are of fairly different feathers."

"Not this robin or raven. No, these have a lot more in common than they think. We do already have that bond between us."

"I told you, I can establish the same bond with any others-"

"Then why haven't you, yet?"

"I don't like anyone in on my secrets-"

"Raven, that big secret was exposed long ago, I think we all forgave you." As Robin went on, Raven finally entered her sanctuary. Robin began to follow, but stopped just outside her door, out of respect and courtesy. "There's nothing more to hide, so why haven't you formed that bond with the others?" She had disappeared into her room completely now.

Darkness there, and nothing more.

"Raven?" He asked tentatively.

"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore.  
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken.  
Leave my loneliness unbroken.—quit the bust above my door.  
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door" She quoted suddenly. "To put it simply, leave me now, forever more... Or at least for the night. Great Azar, can't you ever quit for one night, Robin?"

"...And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, _still_ is sitting  
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;  
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,  
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;  
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor  
Shall be lifted—nevermore!" he finished. "Or to put it simply, no, my Raven, I'm not going to quit. Poe may have been brought to the edge of insanity, but I think we can take you out of whatever insanity that you may find yourself trapped in," Robin decided it was high time to bring back a point that he knew BB had upset her with. "Raven, you don't need to worry anymore. The stuff with Trigon is over, we can move on with our lives."

"But Robin... What if? What if Star really does come back sooner than we expected? Not that hundred years to the future Warp would go to, that future where the Titans had to make do without her? What if she shows up, any day now, and we send her back to our time, just so we can undo all this future we've had without her... And I have to defeat Trigon all over again. Just the thought of me, having to go through that uncertainty again... It's just awful. But what if?"

"What if worms had machine guns?" he repeated once more.

Raven sighed again. "Birds wouldn't fuck with them."

"We'll still be those same Titans, Raven. If anything, if Star really was sent back, we got another machine gun to help us out against the worms themselves. Shouldn't be damn near as tough as it was without her, if you recall."

"Still... Ending the world... again. I just need some time to think this over, if you don't mind Robin, just go back to the boys. I'll be fine by morning."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" He had initiated the standard goodbye the two had shared since the beginnings of the team.

"I'm not okay, I promise."

"What?"

"My Chemical Romance. You think you're the only bird with songs stuck in their head?"

"No matter what happens Rae, I will Follow you Into the Dark."

"Death Cab for Cutie. But I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Robin."

"Ah, U2? Better start swallowing your Pride, Rae."

"But it's In the Name of Love..." she whispered through the door, almost too faint for him to hear.

It was all he needed, though. He wanted to keep it up, he could've, but it was best to let it slide.

Beast Boy had no clue how close he hd come to discovering what the two birds were just starting to mull over in their own heads. That they could very well be falling, Head Over Heels, for each other.

'Definitely don't want any Tears for our Fears complicating all of this,' Robin thought ruefully. Smirking all the while to himself and setting aside the allusion for later. 'We've got enough trouble headed our way, there's definitely murky waters ahead...'

Robin let his thoughts drift once more to that question as he made his way lazily back to Ops, in absolutely no rush. As long as Raven would be okay, he could live with a little uncertainty in this life. Still... "What if worms had machine guns?"

...

Author's Note: YAY! It's over! Again, a little looks into Behind the Scenes goes to whoever can guess that 3am comment! I'ma not giving any hints bout it! Okay, it's a song line, now you tell me the band & name & stuffs.

Tell me if this was any good, or if I overloaded on allusion like a kid overloads on candy on Halloween. I know the quotation was bit much, but hey, staying up late makes me crazy, & insomnia isn't so great for anyone... I'm having trouble trying to sleep, I'm counting sheep but running out.. My mouth is dry, my face is numb. Fucked up and spun out in my room... Another scene added if you can guess both songs now. There, that should provide interesting feedback, I'm sure...


	2. Chapter 2

The Titans had faced villains before, but none quite like Warp.

A villain from the future? Coming to the past to steal something that is probably already there in the future time period? There's a nice little paradox to be figured out later.

But Robin had to stay focused, watch out for his teammates. But no, all their training and fighting, it couldn't have prepared them for what was to come.

Warp had obviously done his research. He had everything to put each Titan down. But when he was so close to getting the relic that he came to steal, nearly entering the vortex, but giving a classic 'villain's final gloat'... something must've set Starfire off.

Robin watched in horror as she flew right at the villain, yelling indignantly as she flew with him into the time vortex.

He tried to follow, to stop them both maybe, but Robin tucked and rolled as the portal to the future closed up in front of him. He was too late.

"Starfire!"

"Um, where did she go?" Beast Boy asked, just recovering from the shock he had received earlier.

"Not where. When," Raven corrected.

"A hundred years into the future," Robin realized quickly, remembering Warp's gloat, "Cyborg, Raven, we have to find a way to get her back. We can still-"

"Robin, if Star was coming back, she'd be back. As in right now," Raven reasoned. "No, if Star's going to the future, it's going to be a future that we had to live without her. Otherwise she'd be right here beside us already. Right this instant."

"No, I don't believe that. She's just missing, she's probably already at the Tower, she's probably setting up more decorations for Blort-hog or whatever that holiday was. She's-"

"Robin! Stop!" Raven glared at her leader. "She's. Not. Coming. Back."

"Uh, wait, so you're saying that Star's in the future right now, but she can't get back to our time, so..." BB was getting confused.

"It's the classic time travel paradox. If that future is truly what the world is meant to be, then she'd be back already, no harm done to our past, present, or future. However, if it's not how the world is supposed to be, and Warp threw us all into some sort of time loop, well, our only hope of righting the wrong would be sending Star or Warp or whoever messed with the balance back where they belonged, thus setting the time stream back into play... Though, that only works if life is as predetermined as some believe. If we're truly ruled by fate," Raven explained.

"So, um, in simpler terms?" BB asked again.

"We're either living the timeline we're meant to at this point- what we're fated to be doing, saying, thinking- or we're living an alternate timeline that will need to be course-corrected if Star has any hope of returning to us and setting us all on the right track again."

"I don't know about you guys, but I definitely don't want a future without Star," Cyborg said. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do, Raven?"

"Time Travel is very slippery business, it's too easy to mess with and throw out of balance. If we do anything to try and get Star back, we could end up making it so much worse. We're better off putting our faith in Star, she'll either come back to us, or... No, she'll come back, she has to..." Raven looked deep in thought as she made her way out of the museum.

"Or what, Raven? What more is there?" Robin asked.

"Well, we could be doomed to live the rest of our lives without her, like I said a minute ago, Boy Blunder. This timeline needs some sort of future for Star to go to, after all. She is supposed to be a hundred years ahead of us in the time stream. If ours is the one that Warp's thrown out of balance, then Star will have to see the future that we've made without her. If we're lucky, she'll be either impressed or distressed by it and find a way to come back to our real, fated timeline. But we still need to continue down this path in order for that possible future to actually happen. Which means..."

"She's definitely _not_ coming back to us," Robin realized.

"Do you just make this up as you go?" BB asked rather rudely.

"With all those Science Fiction movies you and Cyborg spend hours on end watching, I would think I shouldn't have to explain any of this to you."

"She's got a point there, B," Cyborg laughed lightly. "So, we do nothing? I mean, if she's not coming back... "

"We can't exactly 'do' nothing," Raven said, "But we can keep doing what we do best. Crime fighting."

"I guess this means heading back to the Tower..." Robin suggested. He made a call for the frozen security guards and all headed for the exits.

...

Arriving back at the Tower wasn't nearly as joyous without Star. It was like the light had left them.

Robin had stayed behind to file a report of the missing relic with the police. Beast Boy had set to work as soon as he got into Ops, finishing his video game. Cyborg had chosen to ignore the changeling's jeers and headed straight for his room for some alone time.

Raven was about to make a move to clean up the necklaces Star had dropped earlier, but thought better of it. No way was BB ever going to pick up something without being asked first. Cy would try to be sly about it, but he was most likely going to give himself a chance to grieve for Star, then cleanse his memory of the bad times. Robin... hadn't even had the chance to see the little bell-like beads. 'He's still taking his time with the report for the police,' Raven remembered.

She was going to let Robin be the authority on what to do with those _Blorthog_ beads. After all, they were all really close, but something had been happening between the Boy Wonder and the alien. It wouldn't take an empath to tell you that much.

So there the torn necklaces would stay, neglected for as long as Robin would ever stand to let them stay. Raven floated on and silently promised herself that she'd make sure that they wouldn't need to stay for long.

...

Much later that night, something happened. Something very strange.

Beast Boy was having such a lovely dream. Granted, he couldn't remember exactly what it was, but he could tell you it was really good.

"Everyone, get to Ops. _Now_!" Raven's voice demanded over the Tower's intercom.

"Ahh! I'm up! I'm up!" BB yelled after being shocked out of his dreamscape. He morphed into a cheetah, speeding down the hallways, yet was somehow the last to arrive in Ops.

"Okay, now where's Starfire?" Raven asked.

The boys all looked to each other. Didn't she remember what had happened not even 12 hours ago? Apparently not.

"I'm serious. We need _everyone_ here. I need to tell you all about my dream just now," Raven turned back to the control panel without waiting for a response. "Starfire, we're all in Ops. We need every-" Robin cut her off by shutting down the computer.

"Raven, are you feeling alright?" he asked, very concerned.

"Of course I'm alright. I just need to tell you all what happened in my dream."

"But you _do_ remember what happened earlier today, right? That battle with Warp?" Cy tried to jog her memory.

"How did you know about Warp?" Raven asked him.

"Um, because we fought him... Just this morning..."

"No, that's impossible. We aren't supposed to meet him until... Oh... Wait," Raven clutched her head as if she just received a very bad blow. "That's right... Now I'm remembering..."

"Uh, you okay Raven?" BB asked.

She sighed in response, "I don't know, but don't expect me to act normally these next couple days. I think something's happened because of Warp."

"Okay, three things. One: define normal. Two: What do you mean 'next couple days' and what does Warp have to do with it? And three: Yeah, something already happened, we lost Star," Robin put it simply.

"Normal as in not my usual rainbows and sunshine self," Raven started, "The other two go hand in hand. Yes, _now_ I remember that Star isn't here, but I think my subconscious is refusing to realize the truth."

"Your subconscious?" Cy asked skeptically.

"Yeah, maybe it's an effect of how our timeline's been disrupted. Um, can I say 'my life is positively ruled by fate' and leave it at that?" Raven pleaded.

The boys all looked to each other for answer until Robin seemed to give them a look, as if he were saying, 'we'll deal with it later'.

"Why don't you just tell us this dream you had, Raven?" he finally said, breaking the silence in the room.

"Actually, it's probably better if I just show you," she said.

"Wait, what do you mean 'sh-'" Beast Boy was cut off as Raven said her mantra and all had joined her in a state of group consciousness.

...

It started out as the same type of scene from earlier. The Titans battling Warp. The Titans losing to Warp. Then, something changed about it.

This time, Starfire wasn't the one to follow Warp to the future.

It was Cyborg.

"Ta-ta Titans. I have enjoyed our time together but I've got a very bright future ahead of me," Warp said yet again, for the last time.

"Not on my watch!" Cyborg yelled as he ran for the villain accidentally making both of them stumble into the time portal.

"Cyborg!" Cy heard Robin call as the portal closed up behind him and the villain. He continued the fight with the criminal, it could've been seconds, it could've been minutes, but Cyborg somehow managed to gain an upper hand and damage the time traveling device on Warp's breastplate.

"No! You'll damage the time stream!" But it was too late for Warp. And Cy soon landed on a soft bank of snow.

"Global warming my ass," he mumbled as he shook the freezing water droplets off himself. "Okay, where-" He looked up to see a very abandoned-looking Titans Tower before him. "Never mind, _when_ am I?" His system alerted him almost immediately.

"..."

"..."

"..!.."

"TWENTY YEARS?!" Cyborg felt like fainting. There was no way he was twenty years into the future, time travel or not. But he knew one way to tell how far from his friends he might be...

"Cyborg to Beast Boy?" Pause. No answer. "Robin?" Pause. No answer. "Starfire? Raven?" Pause. No answer. "Honorary Titans, anyone!" Cy yelled into the communicator built into his arm.

There was a lot of static at first, then a tentative voice and a masked face. "Cyborg? Is that... really you?"

"Robin?" Cy asked back just as tentatively.

"It's Nightwing now. And it's been a long time. But not too long for you, I suppose," Rob- er, Nightwing smirked.

"Yeah, um, you have a place we can catch up? Maybe we can get some of the others-"

"You might not like that," Nightwing said suddenly, cutting him off.

"You really haven't changed from that spiky-headed jerk I knew twenty years ago, have you?" Cy joked, noticing how the hero had let his gelled hair grow.

"Wouldn't that be only a few minutes ago for you?" Nightwing joked back.

"Hey, who's the time traveler here?"

"Time traveler," he scoffed, "Here, I've sent you the coordinates of where my base is, we've got a lot of catching up to do."

...

"So you're telling me that none of the team stayed together? At all?" Cy asked incredulously as he took careful sips of hot cocoa that had been prepared to combat the winter chill.

"Hey, you disappeared, Cy," Nightwing said sadly, "That fight with Warp was a long time ago. After we realized you weren't coming back, things started falling apart. I think I remember Beast Boy was the first to go, truly leave the group. We all shut down the Tower soon after Raven... But I'll get to her in a minute. BB, or rather Changeling, he wanted to try it solo. It... it didn't work out for him. Last I knew, I helped him get a gig with Haly's Circus. I'm old friends with the ringmaster, but I haven't heard from him since. That was about a year ago.

"Starfire's been staying with us the longest. She was always keeping tabs on everyone, but she couldn't get us to stay as a group. It just wasn't possible without you, Cy. Anyways, she's been helping me out in Jump when she can, but mostly just traveling around Earth. She had to leave about four months ago, though. There's been trouble on Tamaran, but I got a transmission from her a couple weeks back saying she was okay, she made it there safely and that everything was running smoothly."

"Why didn't you go with her, man? I mean, everyone thought you and Star-"

"Were going to end up 'together five-ever'?" He laughed. "A lot changes when you grow up. Star was a good girlfriend, don't get me wrong, but when it came time for me to decide, I knew we needed to stay friends. I love her, Cy, but I learned the extent of that love."

"Hmm, okay then, now what about Raven? How is she doing?"

Nightwing's face somehow managed to darken even further in the dimly lit lair. "There was... an incident. A lot of different factors, I guess, but... it's probably better if you see for yourself." He stood up and made his way to the exit.

...

"Man, Jump's really changed. Where's AJ's Music Store? Or Marline's, that candy place? And the auto parts place next to that bookstore?"

"Oh, that? Trust me, they got rid of a bunch of our old hangouts fairly early in the years you've been gone. The whole city changes so much on a yearly basis."

"Hmm," Cy mumbled unintelligibly as the duo trekked on through the city. It seemed the further they went, the more the city would look upgraded, the stereotypical 'future' look, or the more the city would look like it had been abandoned. According to Nightwing, some of it had been.

They finally stopped in front of one of these abandoned buildings, the name had long been vandalized and scratched out, but Nightwing explained that going very far back in Jump's history, the place was a clinic that had been set up during a small influenza outbreak that occurred locally. It had been converted to an elderly home once it was deemed no longer useful for it's intended purpose, then when it saw a lag in the amount of old people coming in for care, it shifted it's purpose, yet again, for an asylum.

"It was shut down about thirty years ago- it'll be ten for you- and it's been left to mostly the neighborhood's gangs that used it as a hangout. Until Raven took over." Nightwing smirked as he went on, "Now they don't get within fifty feet of the building. C'mon, I'll show you the way in."

Cyborg followed him silently inside. The lobby of the building had probably been very nice, at some point. Vandals had torn up the couch, the front desk had the typical vulgar graffiti and gang signs were plastered on the wall behind. Broken beer bottles and general litter was all around which made it a nightmare to step through, but the duo made it past without any harm done.

The halls were nicer, but still very decrepit. The electricity blinked on and off as Nightwing had navigated the halls, leading Cy up a few flights of stairs and through more corridors until they finally came upon a room.

"This is it. I come here a couple times every few months to check up on her. Star was much better at it than I am, but she refuses to recognize either of us. Probably won't recognize you either. Just thought I'd give you fair warning."

Cy simply nodded in response and opened the door to a completely white room. "Hey, wait. I thought-" Some of the white moved a little. Then Cyborg was able to make out the cloaked figure, dressed in white like the day he and Beast Boy had gone into her mind.

"Raven, hey. How're you doing? It's me, Cyborg." The figure made no move to see who had entered her domain.

"Other friends have flown before. On the morrow _he_ will leave me, as my hopes have flown before," Raven mumbled.

"Um, Rae, it's okay. I left awhile ago, but I'm here now. I need you and our friends to help send me back," Cyborg said, trying to get closer to the distraught empath.

"No such thing, never had been, never, never... " She shifted a little away from him, but not too far, just enough for Cyborg to take the hint that she didn't believe his presence in the room to be real.

"Raven, please, if you help me and Nightwing, maybe we can get you some help. Think about your friends-"

"Take thy form from off my door. Leave, please, leave. When will you quit? It's all gone. Broken. Never getting fixed! Go away!" She began shouting as she slid further and further from Cyborg. "You have to go, just like before."

Cyborg turned for Nightwing's help, but the masked man simply shook his head, saying, "There's not much we can do, she's still stuck in her world."

"I'll make this better, Rae, I promise," Cy said as he left the room.

"How did she get to be like that?" he asked Nightwing as soon as the door had closed behind them.

"You remember that mirror you and Beast Boy used to get inside her head?"

"You don't mean-" "Someone got ahold of it. And they were able to break her with it," he continued darkly. "Her mind is literally a mess. We all did what we could, trying to put her mindscape back in order, but it was pretty bad. The closest we got to getting her back was when we were able to reform her emotions. It shocked her out of the coma, at least."

"COMA!" "Relax, if we can get you back to the past, then maybe a good old fashion time travel paradox will be the thing we need to make sure none of this future ever happens. Looks extremely bleak compared to what I always wanted out of it, at any rate."

Cyborg stood a few minutes, pensive. Finally reaching a decision, he turned to Nightwing. "Where do you think Warp is, right about now?" Nightwing smiled, "I have an idea."

...

"Tick-tock, tick-tock," Warp quietly sang to himself. "Ah, just a few more- UGH!" Warp rubbed the spot on his chin where a birdarang hit. "Oh, the Teen- well, there's one Teen Titan. And a hero that I'll be placing in retirement, post haste," the villain smiled.

"Didn't you hear? The thirties are the best years of your life," Nightwing glared back, "But I've been itching for a little nostalgia these days." Nightwing immediately threw another birdarang as Cyborg charged his sonic cannon.

Then, everything began fading to black...

...

"Wait, wait, wait," Beast Boy yelled as the vision faded, "W-what happens? Why did you-?" "Beast Boy, shut up!" Robin chided.

Raven's eyes changed back from white to their normal blueish-purple hue as she fainted.

Cyborg took a glance at his arm. "Diagnostics say she's fine, the vision must've taken a lot out of her."

Robin slowly helped Raven sit up as she rubbed her forehead. "Ugh, wait, there's still more-" "And you're in no position to 'show' us-" "At least let me tell you what happens next, while I still have it in my head."

The boys all looked at each other, as if asking what each of them already knew. "Sure, Rae, you can tell us," Cyborg said.

Raven nodded, then closed her eyes in concentration.

"Starfire shows up, then Changeling. They're able to apprehend Warp, he regresses into a baby somehow- probably the extensive damage to his time travel device-. Cyborg is able to open a time portal for a few extra seconds, just enough time to grab the relic and head back... Then... " Raven took a pause, finding it increasingly difficult to focus. "Then I'm there, I'm trying to stop him. No, to follow him back. But you all stop me. Then..." Raven gasped, her eyes flying open. They're back to being pure white, but fade again as she loses the vision.

"Then? What? What happens?" Beast Boy asked earnestly.

"I- I.. I don't know," Raven lied nervously, "It's gone now, I can't remember."

Robin stared at her, not quite believing, but willing to let it go.

"Alright Titans, that's enough excitement for a week. Let's try to get some rest. We'll figure this out in the morning."

All nodded as they made their respective ways to their rooms.

"Oh, and Raven." She stops to turn and face Robin. "We _will_ talk about this in the morning. As a team." She says nothing and walks away.

...

Notes: 'What?' you ask again, 'This is being somewhat continued too?'  
Yes, yes it somewhat is. But as with To Be Decided, updates will be spontaneous. I hope this isn't insane like the first chap was. Seriously, I don't even want to read it, even to just start fixing it! What was I on? XD  
Ah well, not much I can do about it now, but I probably will clean it up sometime soon. So that it flows better or something. :/ As you can see, we're going back to the beginning, seeing how the Titans ended up that way & how they got to their respective positions in 'How Long Is Forever?'. It's been done a million times before, I know, but that's not going to stop me from putting my own little spin on it. :) So... my only questions for you, dear reader, is: Is this better than what I started with, at least? Does this seem like it'll actually go somewhere? Is it even interesting?  
Eh, either way, you still give me the page views, maybe a fave if you liked it, a follow if you want more. It's just so darned annoying when a writer sees how many people are reading, but doesn't have much else to show for it. Help me be a better writer, guys! Tell me how to improve! (If you actually read this & are going to leave a review-with some advice-, a million thanks in advance!)

Well, that's the end of that little note/rant. Happy reading! :)


	3. Chapter 3

That morning, Raven took the opportunity to 'sleep in' as late as possible, to the point where Robin had given up on cornering her in Ops, and left to get a little bit of training done.

First, though, he took the time to clean up the Blorthog beads that Starfire had dropped the day before. He knew there was no point in letting them collect dust and leave Ops a mess to be cleaned later. Besides, the team needed to move on, to learn to function without Star, and one of the first steps was to get rid of those bad memories.

When Raven had sensed that Robin had moved on from Ops and was making his way to another area of the Tower, she began making her way through the long corridors. Figuring she only had so long to make herself tea and leave, she took advantage of Robin's absence in Ops and did just that.

This didn't stop Cyborg, however, from surprising the empath and keeping her occupied until he was able to alert Robin.

"'Morning Rae!" he called, startling Raven and making her spill some tea packets on the counter.

"Oh, good morning Cyborg," she called back, warming up her tea kettle and impatiently tapping her fingers on the counter. As soon as the tea was ready, she was leaving Ops.

"Kinda freaky," he continued, "That whole vision thing, right after that fight with Warp... I mean-" "Cyborg, I don't want to talk about it." "But Robin does." "And what the Boy Blunder doesn't know, won't kill him."

"And you'll have me believe that secrets are something that aren't meant to be shared?" Robin interrupted as the kettle picked up it's whistle.

"I don't need this right now."

"But we need to talk about this!"

"And I need- Ugh... " Raven clutched her head yet again, dropping her tea cup, her eyes clenching shut . As the cup shattered and tea spilt across the tiles, her eyes shot open, revealing nothing but black as she looked towards the future again.

...

The fight, the relic, the lost Titan.

But... the scene changed yet again.

"Ta-ta Titans," Warp gloated again, "I have enjoyed our time together, but I've got a very bright future ahead of me."

"That's what you think!" Beast Boy shouted as he tackled the time traveler. He heard Robin calling his name as the portal closed up behind them. "Beast Boy!"

He morphed into a hawk, trying to maintain some sense of gravity as they swirled along a literal time stream.

"No, watch it, you'll damage my-" It was again too late as the damage done to Warp's breastplate caused the two to spin out of control, with Beast Boy landing on a soft shelf of snow.

"Dude, that was cold, heh-heh," he tried to laugh it off. People didn't realize that even if there was no one there to joke with him, Beast Boy was still always ready to make things feel a bit lighter.

He looked around, trying to take in his surroundings and was completely shocked to see the Tower in near ruin.

"Duuuuude! Cy, you've really let this place go!" he yelled in surprise, knowing that his friend was probably nowhere near their old home. "Better check out how much Jump's changed," he said to himself as he made his way up to the Tower's front entrance.

...

Carelessly kicking the rusting Blorthog beads that had been resting in Ops for who-knows-how-long, Beast Boy made his way, reminiscing on what had transpired not even a few minutes ago for him, but was probably ages ago for his friends. He made his way to the couch, placing his head in his hands. "What happened?" he whispered, yearning for some way to turn back the clock, literally.

"Yo! Who's been breaking into my Tower and-?" a dilapidated Cyborg ran into Ops, a short piece of pipe in hand. "... Green Bean? Salad head? Is that- Is that really you, man?"

"Well who else could it be?" Beast Boy smiled, running up and hugging his friend. "What happened, dude? I was fighting with Warp and then-" "Next thing you know you're in the future? Yeah, that's what happens when you fight with a time traveler."

"So, you mean... I'm here now... Is there a future me somewhere? Dude, I've got a million questions-" "Sorry little man, this isn't one of those futures."

BB looked confused. "Wait, but you said this was the future... But I'm not here?... DID I DIE OR SOMETHING-" Cyborg gave the changeling a necessary slap. "Relax, man. We just need to get you back twenty years-" "-TWENTY YEARS?-" "-and you'll reset the time stream."

"Uh-huh.. and how are we supposed to do that, exactly?"

Cyborg gave him a sidelong glance, unsure of how to break the news to him. "Well, see, you're gonna have to track down Warp and get that device of his back. I might be able to help open the portal... but my tech hasn't worked all that well in the past few years. I'm pretty much obsolete."

Eyes downcast, Beast Boy stood up, determined to set things right. "Tell me where I can find the others. I want all the help I can get."

...

Making his way through the rundown asylum probably wasn't one of Beast Boy's better plans, but it was the only one he had so far. Cyborg had told him that he'd lost touch with Nightwing -formerly Robin- a long time ago, and that Starfire was off-world, visiting Tamaran, or possibly enjoying another extraterrestrial adventure on her own.

The only one that Cyborg was able to keep close tabs on, was Raven. But that didn't make BB any more hopeful about the state of affairs he found himself in. Especially after he ran into the former Boy Wonder.

"Bea- Beast Boy?" Nightwing asked in shock. "No way! What are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same thing, dude," BB answered back. "I guess when I fought Warp, I musta done something to land here, Cyborg said that he wasn't going to be able to help me, so I tried searching for you guys. He said Star's-" "Starfire's been off-world for awhile, and Raven... she's not going to be of much help, but you're probably going to want to see that for yourself."

"What do you mean? Cyborg said that she was just-" "Retired? Not actively 'superheroing'? Chilling out and being Raven? Yeah, sure. You need to see for yourself, BB," Nightwing said bitterly, continuing his walk down the debris-filled corridor. "I'll be waiting outside when you're through."

"Hmph, some leader you turn out to be," the changeling grumbled. He decidedly distracted himself with trying to find the right door.

...

Walking into the blindingly white room, Beast Boy was unsure of what he'd find. Sure enough, it looked as though Raven had aged just like the rest. She seemed taller at least, she still had that stupid cloak wrapped around her, though it was white instead of it's more familiar blue.

"Hey Rae- er, Raven," BB corrected himself. "What's up?- Don't worry, I already know!... The ceiling!" Beast Boy gave a half-hearted laugh, then stopped as he heard an unfamiliar sound.

Raven. Laughing.

But... it sounded broken. Like she hadn't really heard the joke itself, but was merely laughing for the sake of it.

"Uh, Raven?" "- cheesy, but sometimes funny. I remember... I couldn't laugh before, I shouldn't laugh now..."

"Raven?" Beast Boy grew concerned. She didn't sound all there, it was as if she didn't even know he was standing behind her.

"He was sometimes funny. Not always... I couldn't tell him that, though. He'd only keep it up... And now he's gone..."

"But Raven, I'm right here! I'm back! And I need your help." He made his way ever closer to her, bringing up his hand, almost pleading.

"You gotta help me stop Warp. Please, Raven. Cy can't, and I haven't even asked Rob- erm, Nightwing, yet. Please? As a friend?"

"I had friends... gone now... They're gone, all gone! Never going to be back! Go- go away!" Raven shifted to the other side of the enclosed space as her yelling died down. "You'll leave, just like before. Just like the rest."

...

Nightwind smirked as Beast Boy left the building, greeted by the freshly falling snow.

"Well? I tried to warn you."

"Whatever, dude," Beast Boy sulked, "Looks like it's just you and me."

"Maybe, maybe not. I've been trying to contact Star about this, and convince Cy to find a way to help us out, but... It's unlikely the cavalry will arrive in time. I've been alerted about Warp, he's up to his old trick at the Museum. Ready to give him a surprise visit?"

Beast Boy smiled, even if they didn't have their team, it was cool being able to work solely with the former Boy Wonder like he had always dreamed of doing.

...

Warp was humming to himself once more when the duo attacked. It was unexpected, but not completely surprising for time jumper.

"Ah, a dynamic duo trying to best me once more? Aren't you tired of- ough!" Warp found himself blow away by a familiar green star bolt.

"You would do well to leave my friends be!" An angry alien woman yelled.

Starfire had changed the most out of everyone, as far as BB could tell. She had really filled out from her teenaged body and her hair seemed a fiery mess, not it's usual straightened and shiny self.

Warp rubbed his jaw, trying to retain some dignity. "Hmm, a Tough Trio, eh? It hardly harkens back to the former glory of what used to be the Teen Titans. But I suppose that's why they refer to it as 'the glory days'," the villain smirked. "I suppose I should finish th-" Warp found himself yet again blown away by a familiar sonic canon.

"Boo-yah," Cyborg half-heartedly laughed.

"So you decided to join the party after all," Nightwing smiled.

"And why wouldn't I? Y'all can't get rid of me that easy!" Cyborg smiled back.

The fight commenced yet again, with the Titans predictably winning after Nightwing hit the time traveler's device with just the right amount of force. Warp regressed back into the form of an adorable but annoyed baby.

Cyborg opened up a vortex for Beast Boy to go through, Starfire handed him the stolen relic.

And as Raven watched it unfold, she felt a sense of dread.

Because it happened again.

In a mad frenzy, her future self had arrived and was trying to follow Beast Boy to the past. And when the other Titans got in her way, she didn't take it very well.

She nearly killed all of them.

But this time around, Raven felt more of a sense of why. She better understood how she got to this point in time, and what her reasons for trying to get back to the past were.

She wanted to be sure, to have security, to know that everything would work out and be okay.

In her madness, she had forgotten that fate was never a sure thing, but only because she knew her life had, and still is, so supposedly ruled by it.

The vision faded once more as she saw her future self attacking her former friends.

...

"Guys, she's waking up!" Robin called over his T-com, then turned to Raven, "Hey, you okay? You blacked out there for awhile."

Raven took a glance around to find herself in the infirmary.

"Yeah... Just... tired, I guess," she lied smoothly.

"Yeah, because oversleeping tends to make us all a little tired," Robin grumbled as Cyborg and Beast Boy rushed in.

"You okay Rae?" Cyborg asked, very concerned.

Raven hesitated this time. They were sure to keep asking questions. And so far, she'd had visions of her remaining teammates replacing Starfire as the sacrifice to capturing Warp. Maybe it would be better to play it up instead of trying to play it down as per usual. After all, her teammates were sure to leave her be if she made the situation seem as serious as it probably was.

"It... " she sighed, debating once more before finally deciding to tell the truth. "It was another vision. This time Beast Boy."

The boys all backed up a bit as if she had just admitted that she was radioactive and had three extra toes.

"So, wait. You're saying that this time I went to the future and got to see how we ended up and stuff?" BB asked incredulously. Raven simply nodded in response.

"Your subconscious must be 'going down the list', trying to rule out all the other possible situations that could've played out," the boy detective mused. "No telling who's next, but it should stop once you've gotten through seeing all the Titans' visits. And there's still no telling if that'll include Star's too."

"I doubt it," Raven said, "Fate is fickle, and we're probably going to have to wait to know for sure."

"Why don't you tell us a bit about this second vision, Raven? We might learn something from them both," Cyborg suggested.

Raven complied, leaving out what she had been doing to her teammates as she had been brought back to reality.

"Twenty years again. This could be a sign. Maybe Stafire- no. Starfire definitely must be fighting-, er is fighting like how Cy and BB did. Maybe that's all we have to do. Wait twenty years for her." Robin was getting hopeful now. "We'll have her back in just twenty short years!"

"And we'll have to send her back, in just twenty short years," Raven reprimanded. "Robin, a future without any Titan doesn't seem like a future anyone here will want to live. And so far, all these visions end the same. With the lost Titan getting sent away back to the past."

Robin's face fell as he realized what Raven was getting at. "So even if we set everything straight, this timeline will be terminated and everything we build up here will get tossed."

"Unless we've made an entirely new timeline or dimension that ends with us continuing on our merry way once we send Starfire back," Cyborg murmured, upsetting the boy wonder once more.

"Dudes, that's too much to think over. Way too heavy and it's only, like, noon-thirty! I say this calls for emergency waffle-time!" BB said, trying to make things lighter as he ran out of the infirmary shouting, "And it'll be the soy-based kind if ya don't hurry your metal butt, Cy!"

This, of course, made the metal teen rush after the green one.

"You going to be okay?" Robin asked as Raven slowly lifted herself from the cot.

"I should be fine. Only two more to go and at least now I'll be expecting them."

"Good, because we need a return to some sort of normalcy fast after all this. It doesn't do us any good if Jump City falls apart like it looks like it does in those futures."

Raven let the conversation awkwardly drop there as the two birds made their way to Ops, the shouts of their teammates most recent argument filling the Tower.

...

A few uneventful days passed, most of them with tense silences and awkward façades of conversations that passed between the teens as they tried to conceal the inner turmoil that losing Starfire presented.

On one of these days, Beast Boy did his best to try to bridge the gap that had opened between him and his teammates, first and foremost by challenging Cyborg to a video game contest. Cyborg declined in favor of working on the T-car and getting new upgrades.

He tried sparring with Robin, only to find that the Boy Wonder was coveting his time alone almost worse than Raven at the time. As for the ice queen herself, no matter where BB looked or how hard he'd pound and yell at her door, she was nowhere to be seen.

Dejected, he announced his departure for the city, proclaiming that he was "going to have a wild time if anyone still wants to come with!" This was met with only silence.

While Beast Boy didn't have as wild of a time as he initially hoped for, he did meet some pretty girls and some little kids who immediately recognized the Titan and worshipped the ground he was walking on. They were more than happy that their resident hero took time to entertain them, playing a round of hide and seek on the playground and telling them cheesy jokes that even had their parents laughing.

He had better luck with the kids, suffice it to say.

However, during one of these games as he had humorously transformed into a dog to try to 'pick up' a hiding kid's scent, a UFO appeared out of the blue, seeming to zap the hero right before everyone's unbelieving eyes.

...

What transpired over the next few hours was one of the Titans stranger adventures to say the least. While Beast Boy was held captive trying to entertain his new alien kidnapper, the rest of the team was stuck chasing around a green canine lookalike all around Jump. He seemed to take a special liking to Raven, and between Robin and Cyborg, they were able to set the perfect trap to capture the strange beast.

Of course, the drama only heightened as they discovered that the dog could communicate perfectly with his mostly human captors.

To sum this adventure up, the Titans were able to save Beast Boy before he was taken off-world.

The alien's pet, however, was refusing to allow himself to be taken away by his former master, but, eventually, a mutual agreement for a temporary role reversal was put in order.

The aliens left Jump without much damage done to the city, overall. Though the extraterrestrial encounter certainly played heavily on all the TItans' minds, mostly because it brought to mind their own alien friend who had been lost to a foe.

Certainly not something one would want to be reminded of when they're trying so hard to forget.

...

Notes: Think 'Starfire from the comics' for future Star XD Um, thanks everyone for the support for this fic & hopefully y'all like this next installment (which surprisingly came out sooner to me than I expected) Um, so some plot advancement. We get to see that not much changes in the Titans timeline, so I suggest that if you forgot what happened in season 2 & on, familiarize yourself again, because there will still be differences now that Star is out of the picture.  
As always, feedback is appreciated!


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